Arriving in Bangalore
I arrived in Bangalore at 9:30 am on Dec 16th. I was picked up at the airport by a company car. If I get chauffered around much longer I think I will lose my motor control completely. I was dropped off at the guest apt in one of the housing buildings on campus. If anyone has been to the IISc campus knows how lush and heavily tree populated it is. In stark contrast these apts (which in the 70s may have been bright and shiny) easily come up short compared to some projects in Harlem. The shock put me into a comatose state for several hours, after which I collected myself and showed up at the Inst. building to find a bright and newly painted office ready for me.
Here began the reinitiation into the Indian culture. Here I was replete with westernised communication skills. And many things I said seemed to miss the mark and many things said to me I did not get. I got it - but not really as the subtlety was lost.
My first order of business was to find a place to stay in and get out of the mumbai style "chawl" I had been put into. Being shy to express my disappointment at the accomodations I kept mum. Wrong move!!! I had understood that there would be a few apts available from which I could chose. There were none available or selected for me to look at. In hind sight this was probably a good thing. But then it threw me into a panickkkk.
The first three weeks could be summarized pretty much as running after brokers, running with them and seeing place after place and crashing with depression of never finding a suitable place in the allowed budget. I had a car and driver available to me so that was nice. But there were many times in the interest of time I would jump on to the back seat of a broker's two wheeler and try to be relaxed as we missed other vehicles by a hairs breadth from my legs hanging over the edge. I am sure I lost some nerve endings by forcing myself to relax.
Of the 40 odd places I saw, there were three that fit the bill in basic ways - most basic being the style of toilet. Indian style toilets are very popular in this neck of the woods - apparently they are good for all types of movement. These are the ones you squat over a ceramic pan while you do your thing. If you have travelled to the middle east or Japan you may have seen these there too. One place I found was extremely cute and clean and bright - but the one Indian toilet became the sticking point.
As a compromise the landlord suggested he would "convert" it into a regular seat. This was 2 weeks into my search and by this time I was beginning to pick up on the nuances of communication.
Since I could not understand the structure of this conversion I opted out. A good thing too. As a friend of mine put it
"I have seen Indian style toilets where they build a wooden seat to convert. Not the best solution due to flying shrapnel upon impact with porcelain. :>)"
In typical fashion, the budget my work place was willing to spend on my accomodations was not revealed to me right up front. Strange given that the work place was going to lease the apt. The place I have finally moved into was suggested by my work place and then mysteriously withdrawn on grounds of lack of suitability. Then into the third week it was reproduced again as being highly suitable. Were they just waiting for me to waste all my time running around town instead of working? It turns out that I liked this place and decided to take it. But that was also not without its glitches. The paint and cleaning job which was supposed to take 2 to 3 days extended to on and on ..
I am learning to shrug off a lot of things here. There is too much poverty and too much contrast between the haves and the ones who do the work like painting and cleaning and anything requiring labour.
Like the guy who came to fix a leak in the kitchen sink drainage. He asked me for a cleaning cloth which he proceeded to tear into shredds to use the strips to tie around the leak and hence "fix" it. I was dumbfounded. Anyway he spoke only kannada so all I could say again and again was "alla" (meaning No) - he kept saying yes ( atleast thats what i gathered). He left with the leak intact.
Here began the reinitiation into the Indian culture. Here I was replete with westernised communication skills. And many things I said seemed to miss the mark and many things said to me I did not get. I got it - but not really as the subtlety was lost.
My first order of business was to find a place to stay in and get out of the mumbai style "chawl" I had been put into. Being shy to express my disappointment at the accomodations I kept mum. Wrong move!!! I had understood that there would be a few apts available from which I could chose. There were none available or selected for me to look at. In hind sight this was probably a good thing. But then it threw me into a panickkkk.
The first three weeks could be summarized pretty much as running after brokers, running with them and seeing place after place and crashing with depression of never finding a suitable place in the allowed budget. I had a car and driver available to me so that was nice. But there were many times in the interest of time I would jump on to the back seat of a broker's two wheeler and try to be relaxed as we missed other vehicles by a hairs breadth from my legs hanging over the edge. I am sure I lost some nerve endings by forcing myself to relax.
Of the 40 odd places I saw, there were three that fit the bill in basic ways - most basic being the style of toilet. Indian style toilets are very popular in this neck of the woods - apparently they are good for all types of movement. These are the ones you squat over a ceramic pan while you do your thing. If you have travelled to the middle east or Japan you may have seen these there too. One place I found was extremely cute and clean and bright - but the one Indian toilet became the sticking point.
As a compromise the landlord suggested he would "convert" it into a regular seat. This was 2 weeks into my search and by this time I was beginning to pick up on the nuances of communication.
Since I could not understand the structure of this conversion I opted out. A good thing too. As a friend of mine put it
"I have seen Indian style toilets where they build a wooden seat to convert. Not the best solution due to flying shrapnel upon impact with porcelain. :>)"
In typical fashion, the budget my work place was willing to spend on my accomodations was not revealed to me right up front. Strange given that the work place was going to lease the apt. The place I have finally moved into was suggested by my work place and then mysteriously withdrawn on grounds of lack of suitability. Then into the third week it was reproduced again as being highly suitable. Were they just waiting for me to waste all my time running around town instead of working? It turns out that I liked this place and decided to take it. But that was also not without its glitches. The paint and cleaning job which was supposed to take 2 to 3 days extended to on and on ..
I am learning to shrug off a lot of things here. There is too much poverty and too much contrast between the haves and the ones who do the work like painting and cleaning and anything requiring labour.
Like the guy who came to fix a leak in the kitchen sink drainage. He asked me for a cleaning cloth which he proceeded to tear into shredds to use the strips to tie around the leak and hence "fix" it. I was dumbfounded. Anyway he spoke only kannada so all I could say again and again was "alla" (meaning No) - he kept saying yes ( atleast thats what i gathered). He left with the leak intact.
posted by Iss Desh ki Dharti at
4:17 AM
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